Slate (link on main page) provides a primer on torture techniques used (or allegedly used) by Americans. (link) Click the links at the top of the page to see all the pieces. The most interesting living room conversation is on the “Taxonomy of Torture†page, where they discuss the techniques and their legality. I had […]
Internet Public Library
My friend JB at hogswallowing (link on the right of the main page) sends along word of the Internet Public Library, or IPL. (link) Let’s say you’re interested in… astronomy. Go to the main page, find “Science and Tech†among the links on the left. Hover over it, then “Astronomy†pops up. Click to find […]
Kids and Accents
As I was musing over the Pho post (link), it occurred to me that the way we speak may fall into the same area. That is, we all say things a little differently, but at some point we realize that someone says things differently in a way that makes them really different in a larger […]
Pho
Here’s my first post brought over from Why oh Why, as I said I’d do in an earlier post: My wife and I recently ate at a Vietnamese place. We were the only diners lacking an epicanthic fold. We were almost, but not quite, the lightest skinned people in the restaurant. We were not the […]
Why Oh Why
From late 2000 until mid-2005, I occasionally contributed posts to a blog called, “Why oh Why†(or sometimes YOY). There were several contributors, most of whom I barely knew. But then, technical problems killed Why oh Why. Or so I thought. In fact, Why oh Why was licking its wounds, recuperating, rebuilding, and re-other stuff-ing, […]
Translation
I recently finished reading the Odyssey, which I have two versions of. One is translated by S. H. Butcher and A. Lang. The other by Robert Fagles. Here is a representative sample from the former: Therewith he spake to Hermes, his dear son: ‘Hermes, forasmuch as even in all else thou art our herald, tell […]
Old People
Asians in New Jersey seem to have the key to longevity. Not that they know what it is. (Link) [End of Post]
Why Do We Groove Part 2
This isn’t actually a part 2. This is a completely different musing about music. Western classical music has this thing where you expect all the tension in the piece to end on a soothing note in the right key, but sometimes it doesn’t. You’re stuck there, while the music moves on, building more tension. [I’m […]
Why Do We Groove?
According to Don Brown’s “Human Universals†list (which I’m sure you can find on the Internet, but which I have open in front of me), the following behaviors can be found in every human culture ever discovered: •Music (vocal and other) •Music related to dance •Musical repetition •Musical variation •Music seen as art •Children’s music […]
Al Qaida Blogging in Germany
This tidbit from Spiegel tells us that Al Qaida, or their sympathizers, have a new German Web site. (Link) Best line of the article? “Blogger.com is certainly by no means the first company to be used by terrorists to disseminate propaganda.†[End of Post]